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John Howard's victory is an important victory for the United States;
immediately, it retains Australia as an invaluable partner in our Coalition
fighting the war - but psychologically its also very important. Getting
Australia out of the coalition was a goal of many - it was the goal of Mr.
Latham, it was a goal of al-Queda (which launched a series murderous
anti-Australian attacks in recent weeks in a forlorn bid to scare the
Australians), and it was the goal of John Kerry. Had Australia turned to Mr.
Latham then the Australians would have been out of the coalition, al-Queda
would feel that it had knocked another coalition member as they had Spain,
and Kerry would have been exultant and adding to his canned speech something
along the lines of "even the Australian's now realise that President Bush's
war is the wrong war, at the wrong time and in the wrong place."

Let us never forget that John Kerry's sister Diana (Chairwoman of Americans
Overseas for Kerry) went to Australia and essentially urged them to dump
Prime Minister Howard and get out of the war - and never, ever forget that
John Kerry has said that our coalition partners are paying a price for
standing by us, a clear signal to Australia's anti-war forces that Kerry
wanted Australia out of the coalition - out of the coalition so that Kerry
might have more fodder for his campaign rhetoric. There has never been so
shameful a spectacle - a man running for a nation's highest office urging
his nation's allies to abandon his nation, just to help him out in his quest
for personal political power.

I guess that our John Kerry would still consider Australia to be part of the
"coalition of the bribed and coerced" - it will sound even more outrageous
than usual now that the people of Australia in a clear vote have determined
that its good for Australia to be part of our grand coalition. A coalition
which Kerry thinks contemptible because it lacks a bunch of back-stabbing,
bribe-taking French political hacks. But never let it be said that John
Kerry actually learns anything, that he draws upon the lessons of history -
after all, he is the man who voted against the weapons which won the Cold
War and even after it was proved that his vote was wrong, he continued to
vote against defense and intelligence measures even as the terrorist threat
gathered. I feel certain that Kerry feels today what he did yesterday - the
thumping electoral victory of Howard in Australia wont penetrate into
Kerry's brain; it doesn't fit into his absurd worldview, and thus it is to
be ignored, unless it can be insulted.

As for me, I say "thank you" to the brave people of Australia for standing
with us through good times and bad - I am thankful that in a world full of
cruel cynicism there are still people like the Australians, and the British,
and the Polish, and the Italians and, also, we Americans who are willing to
do the right thing even if difficult and even, most especially, if its
unpopular in certain circles. Its a grand day for Australia, and I believe
it presages certain coming events - after all, Americans are no less wise,
and no less brave than their Australian allies.

Mark Noonan blogged for Bush at 12:32 AM in category War on Terror